Friday, April 23, 2010

Virtual Lemonade Stand - Asking for a Hand Out

I was reading Madam Lamb's blog today and a person posted a comment that piqued my curiosity. It was a plea for donations to a personal charity to pay for college. It included a link to her website called Pixels for Lemonade. Basically, she's selling ad space for a dollar a "pixel." Pretty ingenious really. She's asking for 70,000 people world wide to donate a dollar to go toward her college education. So far she's sold 1 pixel. Hey, gotta start somewhere.

I've never completed college myself and owe $50,000 right now for a degree I don't have. I was really bad recently and didn't reestablish my direct debit of $135 a month to EdFund when I got a new debit card. They called like crazy for a couple months. We're kinda broke right now, so I wasn't to gun-ho about forking over my cash. That was a mistake. They sent me a letter last week stating they were going to garnish 15% of my wages. We called and they said you can either agree to pay $400 a month or we'll just take it from you. Needless to say that conversation didn't go over well. Why was $135 a month OK just 4 months ago and now it's $400 a month minimum? They certainly showed me who holds all the cards. DO NOT TAKE A LOAN FROM THE GOVERNMENT....THEY ALWAYS GET THEIRS!!!!! They began garnishing my wages today. Nice, huh...I didn't pay for a year and they threatened it, so I set up $135 a month. Now I miss 4 payments and I get a weeks notice that they'll be taking 15% of my net wages after taxes and withholdings. Turns out I don't have a leg to stand on....but enough of my own sob story.

This recent turn of events is why I will not be donating anything to this young lady either. Frankly, it's your own life, pay for it or earn it. Hand outs are for low lifes and con men.

Here's what I wrote on her blog:

As someone who has a massive debt to pay back and doesn't even have the degree to go along with it, I wish you the best in your pursuit here. I also wish I'd thought of something like this before I sunk myself 50K in the hole.

First I assume, this isn't a scam, but it probably is. I assume you have no scholarship options. I also assume that even if you don't get the full or even a large percentage of funds through your plea for charity that you still attend school.

Education isn't something that you should throw away because the people of the didn't carry you on your shoulders and wallets. Honestly, people who are successful without degrees are the exception to the rule.

She does give some recipes for different lemonades. I really do hope it's not a scam and if it is, I hope no one gets duped. Only time will tell though.